With the MLB trade deadline looming, rumors of what the Washington Nationals will — and won’t — do are now beginning to circulate. This morning, commenter and analyst Buster Olney, wrote that “the dam is about ready to burst on the trade market,” with teams looking for a way to help themselves (or wave the white flag), before the end of July. The Tigers are looking for pitching, the Philllies are looking for a bat, and Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez is on everyone’s radar screen.

What will the Nationals do? G.M. Mike Rizzo isn’t exactly saying, though he notes that the team could be “both buyers and sellers” at the trade deadline. We have no clue what that means, which was obviously Rizzo’s intent. Still, the Nationals have been actively talking about acquiring a lead-off hitter (Michael Bourn’s name has been mentioned), and they have apparently inquired about Tampa’s B.J. Upton. There was even talk that the Nationals are willing to trade All-Star reliever Tyler Clippard in an attempt to answer some of their outfield problems.

There’s no question, a B.J. Upton trade would be intriguing: back in mid-June, Ken Rosenthal said that Upton could be had for the right price — with the Nationals ponying up a hot young infield prospect in a package with Clippard that would bring the then-struggling Upton to Washington. Rosenthal’s thinking was compelling: if the Rays fall out of contention, they could off-load Upton, and save themselves some future bucks. Hmmmmm. And, as Rosenthal noted then: Todd Coffey is being eyed by a number of teams who need a good righty out of the bullpen.

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The Washington Nationals blew an 8-0 lead against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night, rallied to tie the game at 9, and then lost on a single run — to lose the final game of the team’s set against the Chicago Little Bears, 10-9. The loss was marked by a rare implosion by starter Livan Hernandez, and the Nationals’ bullpen. Hernandez was effective until the 6th, when the Cubs put on a six run push to bring the North Siders to within two. The wind-out-of-the-sails moment  came in that inning when pinch hitter Blake DeWitt put a Hernandez offering off the foul pole in right field.

Even after the DeWitt homer, the Nationals had a chance to win: but reliever Sean Burnett could not hold the surging Cubbies. With Aramis Ramirez on base, Cubs’ first sacker Carlos Pena homered, tying the game at eight. The Cubs scored again, were matched by the Nationals — and then put the game away in the top of the 9th when Darwin Barney doubled, bringing home Tony Campana.

The Thursday loss was particularly disappointing for Nationals’ fans, who have been waiting for the team’s breakout game in a season of close one-run victories. Roger Bernadina (3-6), Danny Espinosa (2-5) Michael Morse (2-5) and Wilson Ramos (1-4) all had big nights at the plate, with Espinosa, Morse and Ramos each contributing two RBIs in the loss. Nats’ manager Davey Johnson blamed himself for the loss, saying that he stuck with Livan Hernandez for too long in the sixth. “I’m going to have a hard time sleeping tonight on that one,” he told reporters following the game.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Nationals’ fans can be justly proud of their young and tough up-the-middle combination of Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa, but Chicago’s shortstop-second base combo might be just as good (or better). While everyone focuses on the wizardry of Cubs’ phenom Starlin Castro, second sacker Darwin Barney is turning into the best second baseman the Cubs have had since the days of Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. Then too, (in case you haven’t noticed) Barney is emerging as the N.L.’s “other” rookie second sacker — along with Danny Espinosa.

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The Washington Nationals won yet another one run game, defeating the White Sox in Chicago by a score of 2-1. While the Nationals were able to scratch out only three hits against the Chicago starting staff and bullpen, it proved to be enough to make Livan Hernandez (now 5-8) a winner. He deserved it: the big righty threw 6.2 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out nine.

Washington scored its runs on Danny Espinosa’s 7th inning home run with Michael Morse aboard, giving the Nationals just enough to edge the Pale Hose. Espinosa’s average has been climbing steadily over the last ten games. Chicago’s fans had to be disappointed: Philip Humber threw brilliantly, matching Hernandez pitch-for-pitch and holding the Nationals scoreless through six. Humber held the Nationals to just three hits while striking out four and had a no-hitter through five.

The three game series must have provided a sobering moment for the White Sox whose biggest boppers have not-so-suddenly turned into hitless wonders. The boo-birds were out for Adam Dunn, the off-season mega-bucks free agent (and former National) who’s hitting .019 from the left side of the plate. Dunn is hitting .176 on the season. His four strikeouts today against the Nationals gave him 100 strikeouts for the year. His blood-draining power production (or lack of it) has turned much of the south side against him: he has 40 hits, only seven of which are home runs.

Hernandez was brilliant, but so was the Nationals’ bullpen. Washington’s trio of relievers — Tyler Clippard, Sean Burnett and Drew Storen — held off the Chisox through the 7th, 8th, and 9th, with Clippard and Burnett notching holds, and Storen registering his 19th save. Burnett looked particularly effective, good news for the young lefty who struggled in the early part of June. Burnett has given up no runs and just two hits in his last seven outings. Burnett has lowered his ERA a full point over the last three weeks. The Nationals now head to Los Angeles, where they will duel with the Belinskys.

Anyone who watched the Nationals fall to the San Diego Padres, 7-3 on Thursday night could tell you what ails the team — but it’s a long list: lack of timely hitting, too many strike outs and, most surprising, a great collapsing bullpen. This last is the most surprising, because for a while there the Nationals had one of the best bullpens in the majors. Now, they can’t get anyone out.

The problem starts with Sean Burnett (and does not include Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen or Todd Coffey), but it extends to Henry Rodriguez and Cole Kimball. Last night, Burnett came in for Livan Hernandez — and immediately walked rookie Anthony Rizzo. Cole Kimball followed him, and walked pinch hitter Kyle Phillips. Henry Rodriguez followed suit: he registered two quick outs in the seventh, but then walked the bases loaded and threw a wild pitch. The Friars won the game, but the final score veils what was (at least in baseball terms) a “romp.”

Is this the team’s low point? “It was not a good game,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the loss. “The effort and intensity [was] there, but it was not a good game. We had a couple of things that happened on the bases. We walked people. It was not a pretty game. I don’t know how else to say it.” In the postgame interview with MASN analyst Ray Knight, Riggleman was even more blunt — saying that coming into a game and walking hitters was “unacceptable.” Clearly, changes are on the way, including demotions or even trades. (more…)

Yunesky Maya finally pitched like he belonged in the majors on Wednesday, throwing six complete innings and giving up only four hits — but the Nationals fell to the Giants in San Francisco, 3-1. Maya looked confident, a significant change from his first two outings, when he was tentative, and struggling. But against the Giants he commanded the strike zone, with his off-speed pitch setting down enough McCoveys to keep the Nationals within a run of the lead.

The game was lost on the arm of reliever Sean Burnett, who continues to struggle. In the 7th, after a Cody Ross single, Burnett gave up a deep gapper to Brandon Crawford (scoring Ross) and an Eli Whiteside single, that scored Crawford. That was enough for Matt Cain, who dominated the Nationals in a complete game. The big righty threw 110 pitches, 78 of them for strikes. The Giants’ win gave them their home series against the Nationals, as the Nats head to San Diego to take on the Gwynns. (more…)

If you’re going to score four runs off of Tim Lincecum — no matter how much he might be struggling — you take it and head for the dugout with a win. Right? The Nationals had Lincecum on the ropes on Monday night, but the Washington relief corps couldn’t put the game away, and the Giants won in 13 innings, 5-4.

The most recent Nats’ problem has been with their bullpen, as Monday’s starter John Lannan provided a solid outing — perhaps the best of his career. Lannan held the Giants to four hits over seven innings and the offense came through, with Michael Morse providing the big power, then providing his own timely hitting to put the Anacostia Nine up by 4-1 heading into the 8th. That’s when the Nationals bullpen decided to implode.

The eighth inning was a nightmare: the Giants notched, in order, a single, a double, a single, a single and a single. None of the balls were particularly hard hit, but the hard luck Nationals could not keep the Giants at bay. The primary victim was Sean Burnett, who pitched well, but could not keep a bleeder from Aubrey Huff dropping in front of Jayson Werth along the line in right field. It seemed as if this was just “one of those games,” except that the Nationals have been unable to recently hold leads, but have often been able to escape the danger — as they did in Arizona on Sunday.

Sean Burnett was emotional on the mound after giving up the Huff single, as if he couldn’t believe that the ball actually dropped in: “You make good pitches. He hit it where they weren’t,” Burnett said after the loss. “It’s frustrating. You’ve just got to keep pitching. Hopefully your luck changes. I feel like I’m throwing the ball well, but I’ve got nothing to show for it.”

The denouement came at about 3 am Washington time, when San Francisco faced off against semi-Newbie Craig Stammen, who gave up a walk to Chris Stewart and a single to Andres Torres, before Freddy Sanchez put a single down the right field line to score Stewart and win the game.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Giants of 2011 look a lot like the Giants of 2010 — they win one run games, they’re tough at home, they depend on hitting with runners in scoring position, they have a crew of tough starters, and a lights-out closer . . . which is to say, they are built for the playoffs. Their missing piece might well be Juan Uribe, a spark plug that they now wish they’d re-signed . . .

Kiss It Goodbye? Arrogance in a baseball player isn’t always a bad thing, but the game has a way of beating it out of you. Harper blew a kiss (here tis, folks) to Greensboro Grasshoppers pitcher Zachary Neal after hitting a homer off of him — apparently his 14th of the year. Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman might have something to say about it, if his manager at Hagerstown hasn’t already made it clear . . . it would be interesting to see if he’d ever do it against a guy like, say, Roy Halladay or, better yet — Carlos Zambrano . . . well, he’s not here yet, so there’s time . . . Mike Schmidt had a bit to say about this, and well said: “Tone it down and play the game.”

Martin Prado’s bases loaded home run in the bottom of the 7th inning tied the game at 5 — and the Atlanta Braves went on to win, 6-5 in ten innings against the Nationals in Atlanta. The Prado blast came against reliever Sean Burnett, but the game might have gone the other way: a check swing on a 2-2 count should have put Prado back on the bench and preserved the Nationals’ lead, but the call gave Prado a second life. The loss in Atlanta prevented the Nationals from notching a sweep of the Braves, and a victory that would have provided a positive end to a tough N.L. East road trip.

Prado’s ten pitch at bat, and the check swing, remained the topic of conversation after the game. “I think Burnett got the non-benefit — or whatever the terminology is — on a couple of check swings,” Nats’ manager Jim Riggleman said after the loss. “That irritates the heck out of me, those check swings. He’s got to end up throwing a pitch to Prado with the bases loaded, when maybe that wouldn’t have been the case.” The might-have-been loss squandered a good outing from Nats’s starter Jordan Zimmermann, who threw 6.1 solid innings. This was the kind of outing the Nats were looking for from Zimmermann, who struck out 11 and walked just one.

Once again, the Nationals seemed unable to loosen up their bats. The team registered just five hits against Atlanta’s very average Derek Lowe and a gaggle of relievers. Lowe struggled through six, but Craig Kimbrel — the goat on Thursday — gave the Braves a badly needed three-up-three-down 10th inning. Kimbrel struck out Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth and Laynce Nix to pitch a perfect frame. “That might have been the best outing he’s had all year,” Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said after the Atlanta win. The Nationals are at home tonight, where they will face off against the Florida Marlins.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The most exciting game on Thursday night took place just up the highway in Baltimore — and featured one of the best pitchers’ duels of the 2011 campaign. The Orioles, as inconsistent as any team in baseball in the early going, pulled out a 1-0 walk-off win in the 12th inning, but the story of the night was the pitching of O’s rookie Zach Britton and Mariners’ semi-veteran Jason Vargas. Both hurlers threw the best games of their career.

Britton, a 6-3 California lefty, was the odds-on early season favorite for Rookie of the Year honors — and last night’s performance confirmed that judgment. Britton’s nine inning stint was a thing of beauty: three hits, no runs, no walks and five strikeouts. Vargas matched him pitch-for-pitch — nine innings, four hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Baltimore won the game in the extra frames on a single from just-returned shortstop J.J. Hardy. The victory notched an Orioles’ sweep of the Mariners. “We wanted to win in the ninth for Zach,” Hardy said. “Once we were down, we definitely didn’t give up. That was a big win for us. I know everybody in the lineup wants to go out and score runs for a pitcher who does that. You want to give him the win.”

The Orioles are a fascinating team to watch, the first time anything like that could be said in, oh, about ten years. Their off-season moves included a swap with Minnesota of two relievers for Hardy, the signing of on-his-last-legs Vlad Guerrero to a one year $8 million deal and former North Side Drama Queens first sacker Derek Lee (one year $7.25 million). The Orioles completed the overhaul of their infield by trading for Showboats’ third baseman Mark Reynolds and signed sometime closer Kevin Gregg (for $10 million over two years with an option). The only real head-scratcher in all of that was the trade for Reynolds, a strikeout and long-ball machine who — when he’s not stroking the ball out of the park — can’t hit worth a lick.

But the story of the O’s is their young starting pitching. In addition to Britton, the Birds of Baltimore feature Chris Tillman (don’t laugh, he turned in a long-awaited gem against the Mariners on Thursday), and righty sleeper Jake Arrieta (who’s 4-1 so far this year), to go along with Jeremy Guthrie who, on odd occasions (mostly against Minnesota), pitches like Jim Palmer. Waiting in the wings is uber youngster Brian Matusz, who’s just about to return from a torn intercostal muscle. Matusz’s return will be welcome, as it will nudge struggling wannabe Brad Bergesen back to where he belongs: as a sometime starter who has yet to learn command.

The Orioles could use another pitcher (or two), but a rotation of Guthrie, Britton, Matusz, Arrieta and Tillman not only isn’t bad, it’s damn good. If the Birds can get that done, they’ll be more than halfway to respectability — which hasn’t happened in Birdland for an awfully long time. The only thing left then, will be for Buck Showalter to tell Reynolds there’s a place for him on the pines, counsel Nick “big-hat-no-cattle” Markakis that it’s time to become the star everyone thinks he is, and find a place for Cubs castoff Felix Pie — dumped by the North Side Drama Queens because . . . because that’s what they do. But nevermind, the story (as proved last night by Britton), is that there’s finally a team worth watching in Baltimore, and it’s chock full of young arms.